The latest research by Sophos, IT Security experts shows that more than half of wireless broadband users have had access to someone else’s wireless connection by illegal means at least once in their life. The research which was carried out by Sophos for the Times magazine, estimates that 54 percent of internet users tried to get wifi access without subscribing to wireless services and indulged in stealing wifi access from their neighbourhood or wi-fi enabled places thanks to the inabilities of present system of inefficient of passwords and encryption.
Currently, Wi-fi is used both in homes and in offices. As significant portion of the employees of the businesses work from home, they are found to be more vulnerable to wi-fi thefts. Most offices have adequate wi-fi security features in office premises, however, they often fail to ensure that their mobile workers have the same kind of high protection in their homes or while they are on move. This often facilitates the easy accessibility of illegal wifi access by these wifi stealers. The survey of Sophos indicates that the businesses should focus their attention on providing better security measures for their mobile workers.
Graham Cluely of sophos says:
"Stealing Wi-Fi internet access may feel like a victimless crime, but it deprives ISPs of revenue. Furthermore, if you’ve hopped onto your next door neighbors’ wireless broadband connection to illegally download movies and music from the net, chances are that you are also slowing down their internet access and impacting on their download limit,"
Further he commented:
"For this reason, most ISPs put a clause in their contracts ordering users not to share access with neighbours – but it’s very hard for them to enforce this."
For better wi-fi security, Sophos suggests that proper encryption is used so that intruders cannot access your wireless connection to steal vital information like usernames, passwords and other personal information. Wi-fi connections without proper encryption is also vulnerable to malware which can potentially damage your system and steal anything from your PC. As far as configuring wireless router and other wireless hardware, it carries much more importance than anything so proper configuration of your wireless router often saves you from wifi thefts.
Other safety tips can also help you a great deal. When you choose a password, make sure it is not easy to crack so choose a strong password carefully. There is an inherent feature in your wireless router that can often safeguard you from wi-fi thefts. It is very simple and all you have to do is turn on the feature of comparing the MAC address of the devices in your wireless router. This will often prevent your wireless connection from being illegally used by other devices which are not in the list encrypted in your wireless router. Make sure SSID which bears the name of your wifi network is confidential and also choose a SSID which cannot be easily guessed by anyone.
There is another feature in a few wireless routers often protect you when you are offline. They allow you to deactivate the wireless access when you are not using it so you can make sure your wifi connection is completely secure when you are offline.
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